Film
Angel Manuel Soto to Helm DC Films’ First Latino Superhero Movie Blue Beetle
DC Films and Warner Bros. have announced that Angel Manuel Soto will direct their upcoming superhero movie Blue Beetle. Soto, known for last year’s Charm City Kings, will work from a script by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer (the upcoming Scarface remake). The studios are obviously aware of the importance of bringing on Latino filmmakers for the project (Soto is Puerto Rican, Dunnet-Alcocer is Mexican), as it will be the DC Extended Universe’s first Latino-led superhero story. The Blue Beetle moniker has been used by numerous individuals since it was first created by Charles Wojtkowski for Fox Comics in 1939. It even bounced around different companies before DC picked it up in the ’80s when Charlton Comics went out of business. The current iteration, and the one that will form the basis for the movi...
Gérard Depardieu Charged with Rape and Sexual Assault
Gérard Depardieu, one of the most lauded French actors of his generation, has been charged with rape and sexual assault. As Variety notes, French press agency AFP broke the news. The charges against the 72-year-old stem from a 2018 incident. A then-22-year-old actress says she had been invited over to his Paris home to rehearse a play, and during that process was twice assaulted. In 2019, the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence, but the case was reopened in 2020, and criminal charges were ultimately filed last December. Depardieu’s lawyer, Herve Temime, said his client “completely rejects the accusations.” The attorney for the alleged victim asked that her client’s “private sphere will be respected.” AFP spoke to a “source close to the case,” who said that Depardieu is a frie...
HBO Max Will Not Remove Woody Allen Films
Despite producing a whole miniseries about the disturbing sexual assault allegations against Woody Allen, HBO has no plans to remove his films from its HBO Max library. On Sunday, February 21st, HBO and HBO Max debuted the first episode of Allen v. Farrow, a four-part docu-series investigating claims made by Allen’s adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow. Besides that, the flagship streaming platform from WarnerMedia currently hosts six Allen films, five of which star Dylan’s mother Mia: Another Woman, Broadway Danny Rose, Radio Days, Shadows and Fog, Scoop, and September. And HBO plans to keep them for the foreseeable future. “These titles will remain available in the library,” the company wrote in a statement (via The Wrap), “to allow viewers to make their own informed decisions a...
Billie Eilish Announces Documentary Premiere Event, Shares Live Version of “ilomilo”: Stream
Ahead of the upcoming Apple TV+ documentary Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, the pop star and the tech giant have announced a live premiere event featuring interviews, video previews, and special musical performances. It’s going down February 25th before the film receives a wider release on the 26th, and Eilish is heralding the news by releasing a live performance of “ilomilo”, the song which gives the documentary its name. Apple TV+ reportedly paid $25 million to pull Eilish under their umbrella, and they now seemed to determined to get their money’s worth. The documentary live premiere event will be hosted by Apple Music’s Zane Lowe and feature interviews with both Eilish and the film’s director R.J. Cutler. Also expect are video packages previewing the doc and a st...
Disgraced Director Brett Ratner to Attempt Comeback with Biopic on Disgraced Duo Milli Vanilli
Filmmaker Brett Ratner, disgraced following sexual misconduct allegations, is attempting a comeback with a biopic on Milli Vanilli, disgraced after an infamous lip-syncing scandal. Deadline reports that Millennium Media (The Expendables, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard) has joined Ratner’s RatPac Entertainment in developing the project. The film would mark Ratner’s first directing gig since 2014’s Dwayne Johnson vehicle Hercules. Ratner hasn’t been heard from much since 2017 when a number of women stepped forward with accusations of sexual misconduct and assault. Olivia Munn said the filmmaker had masturbated in front of her and boasted of ejaculating on pictures of her while on set of 2004’s After the Sunset. Natasha Henstridge accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex on him at a part...
Courtney Love Says She Stopped Acting Because of “A Bunch of #MeToos”
Courtney Love isn’t just the lead singer of Hole; she’s a Golden Globe-nominated actress. Or, at least she was, as the multi-hyphenate has largely stepped back from mainstream film roles since the early aughts. In a new Instagram post, she revealed why, and it’s unfortunately not terribly surprising: #MeToo. “One day I might talk about it. I love acting,” Love captioned an image of herself attending the Golden Globes. “I stopped being capable of it after a bunch of #metoos. No one would believe me, and it wouldn’t stop. So I left, and it left. And I’m good with it. Maybe, in my next life I’ll be stronger & able to endure it .. I tip my hat to those who can.” Love was nominated for the Best Performance by an Actress Golden Globe for her role in Milos Forman’s 1996 classic The People vs....
Sasha Calle Cast as Supergirl in The Flash Movie
The DC Extended Universe just got a little more super, as Sasha Calle has been added to the upcoming Flash movie as Supergirl. Director Andy Muschietti announced the casting by sharing video of the Zoom call he had with Calle informing her she’d won the role. According to Deadline, the Young and the Restless actress beat out 425 others for the part. The publication also noted that the Boston-born Colombian actress would be making “her debut” in the November 4th, 2022 release, implying there are plans for Calle’s Supergirl in future DCEU movies. This will mark the first time a Latina has ever worn the Supergirl outfit in any form, including in the comics. The character has historically been depicted as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Kryptonian, previously played by Helen Slater in the 1984...
Edgar Wright to Direct Adaptation of Stephen King’s The Running Man
The clock has started ticking on a new adaptation of The Running Man, the 1982 novel from Stephen King via his pseudonym Richard Bachman. Deadline reports that Edgar Wright (Baby Driver) will direct. King’s tale unfolds in the unimaginably distant future of 2025. America has indulged its most dystopian corporate impulses and now relies on the Games Network to placate the restless populace. Ben Richards of Co-Op City is more hard-up than most, and in the hopes of securing his wife and daughter’s future, he makes a desperate bargain: He agrees to appear on The Running Man, Games Network’s most beloved yet dangerous program. The book got swept up in late-eighties Ahnold-mania, and something that vaguely resembled the original story exploded into theaters in 1987. Schwarzenegger’s well-oi...
Serj Tankian on His Film Truth to Power, the Chaos Around Toxicity, and the Time He Feared for His Life
Serj Tankian’s life as an activist and musician is captured in the new documentary, Truth to Power. The just-released film offers a fascinating look at the singer’s journey inside and outside of his multiplatinum rock band System of a Down. Following Tankian’s path from his childhood to to his pre-SOAD band Forever Young to the present day, Truth to Power features testimonials by Serj and his bandmates, along with such associates as producer Rick Rubin and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello. The film also uses archival video to tell Tankian’s story of activism, while also touching on the origins and highlights of System of a Down’s career. Interspersed are newly shot scenes that include the singer visiting his old high school in Hollywood and voyaging to Armenia during a revolutio...
Netflix’s I Care a Lot Is a Brutal Indictment of the American HealthCare System: Review
The Pitch: Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike) cares a lot. She’s the legal guardian of dozens of elderly people who desperately need her help. This “care” comes in the form of decision making powers regarding her client’s finances and medical treatment. With a simple doctor’s recommendation and signature from a judge, she essentially has the legal right to decimate the lives and accumulated wealth of anyone who falls into her trap. But Marla’s newest client, Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest), is more than she seems and may end up causing the conniving entrepreneur’s downfall. Writer/director J Blakeson’s new Netflix film is a black comedy that feels infuriatingly familiar given the rampant authoritarian greed and hypocrisy we see daily. Dressed up as a stylish thriller, I Care a Lot is a brutal ...
FKA twigs: Shia LaBeouf Shot Stray Dogs, Knowingly Transmitted an STD
In a new interview with Elle, FKA twigs spoke openly and honestly about her abusive relationship with Shia LaBeouf. Many of the details included in the interview were first alleged by singer in her civil lawsuit against LaBeouf. However, in the interview she goes into far greater detail about the abusive behavior she endured. “I think it’s luck,” FKA twigs told Elle when asked how she survived LaBeouf’s abuse. “I honestly wish I could say that I found some strength and I saw this light. I wish I could say, ‘[It is] a testament to my strong character,’ or ‘It’s the way my mother raised me.’ It’s none of that. It’s pure luck that I’m not in that situation anymore.” After meeting on the set of the 2017 film Honey Boy, FKA twigs and LaBeouf began dating and eventually moved in together. twigs ...
Jesse Plemons Cast as Lead in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon
De Niro, DiCaprio, Da Plemons? Via The Hollywood Reporter, Jesse Plemons will get top-billing over some of the biggest names in Hollywood when he takes on the lead role in Martin Scorsese’s upcoming crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon. After two decades as a scene-stealing character actor, Plemons has fully transitioned to prestige powerhouse, with recent star turns in Judas and the Black Messiah and I’m Thinking of Ending Things. He’s also worked with Scorsese before, nabbing a small part in 2019’s The Irishman. Lots of great thespians have put in a few minutes of work for Marty, but those that lead in his movies are often nominated for Oscars. Already a star, Plemons is stepping up to an even bigger stage. Killers of the Flower Moon is based on David Grann’s non-fiction...
